|
Some people are just fucking scum.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Lanarkshire man has been found guilty of murdering his partner's two-year-old son who was subjected to an horrific catalogue of neglect.
Mark Connelly, 29, a heroin addict, now faces life imprisonment when he is sentenced in two weeks time.
Connelly's partner, Cheryl Hanson, 24, is serving nine years after being found guilty at an earlier hearing of culpable homicide.
The High Court in Glasgow heard that little Scott Saunders was locked naked, thirsty and starving in a carpetless and freezing bedroom with 150 injuries from head to toe.
One of the wounds was a serious bite mark on an arm.
Sandy Cameron, executive director of social work at South Lanarkshire Council, said the council had not been involved in the case.
He added: "This is a tragic example of how children's lives can be affected by drug-misusing adults."
The trial judge, Lord Kingarth, told Connelly: "The horrifying nature of your crime will live with all of us who have listened to and seen the evidence over a very long while."
Because Connelly is a first offender, he cannot be sentenced without reports being obtained, but he was told there was only one sentence prescribed by law and that was life imprisonment.
Hanson is currently in Cornton Vale Prison, where she is despised so much by other inmates that one of them blackened her eye with an ashtray last week on the eve of her giving evidence in court.
The court had been told that the boy had been climbing onto his bed and waving from the window apparently to attract attention.
But Connelly dismantled the bed, leaving him wth only a thin mattress and blanket.
In the final week of his life, he was abandoned and imprisoned for days and nights at their house in Galloway Drive, Rutherglen, while the couple took heroin.
Connelly also took up to 30 temazepam tablets a day and drank Buckfast wine.
On the day of the boy's death, they received crisis loans from the local DSS office, Hanson pleading that she needed the money to feed their hungry child and warm their home.
The money was spent on drugs and at a bookmakers, where they hoped to win more cash to feed their habits.
Scott was described by his GP as "healthy and well nourished" while being looked after by his natural father, George Saunders, 27.
Nine months before his death, he weighed 13 kilos. When he died on 31 March 2000, he was just 11.2 kilos.
A few days before Scott succumbed to bronchial pneumonia, Connelly had beaten the boy black and blue.
This was sparked by the boy asking for a third glass of water to slake his thirst.
He was refused this and threw the glass at Connelly, knocking out his front teeth and driving him to violent anger.
On the day of his death, the couple returned at tea time and found the lifeless child. Connelly ordered Hanson to boil kettles of water and fill a bath so they could heat him up.
The court heard that this was because he wanted to raise the child's body temperature, disguising the length of time he had been dead.
Police found the house stinking and littered with methadone bottles.
Elderly neighbours in the street recalled seeing Scott, half-naked at the window in the week leading up to his death.
No-one contacted the authorities.
Thomas Rubio, 67, said: "I often saw him banging at the window with his two wee hands and I was scared he would knock the catch and fall out."
He said he regretted not having taken action.
"If I had known there was something wrong, known what I know now, I would have done something. Anyone would have. I should have.
"But I didn't do anything. I didn't want to poke my nose in it. I wish I had. I am ashamed of myself."
_________________
He has arrived, the mountebank from Bohemia, he has arrived, preceded by his reputation.
Evil Dr. K "The Jimmy McNulty of Payment Protection Insurance"
|
